Not just health, Delhi's air is also toxic for economy facing a slowdown

India's losses from air pollution increased more than four times to $560 billion between 1990 and 2013, according to the World Bank.

Flight disruptions, fewer tourists, lost work hours and missed school days have come to portray India’s struggles with toxic air quality in its capital city, and the intangible costs may be adding up for an economy grappling with a sharp slowdown.

India’s losses from air pollution increased more than four times to $560 billion between 1990 and 2013, according to the World Bank, which attributed the economic burden to the rising costs of public health-care and workforce disruption. Pollution is now being counted among the hidden costs like repelling top corporate talent, according to analysts and industry lobby groups.

“This feeds into the broader economic environment,” said Hemant Shivakumar, a New Delhi-based senior analyst at Control Risks that advises clients on political and security risks. “If the air pollution escalates year after year and there’s no response then it’s likely to send investors a different message.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government deployed 300 field teams to curb pollution after it reached record levels earlier this month, as winds carried smoke from farm stubble burning in areas around New Delhi. Despite the measures and the state government imposing restrictions on use of private vehicles, pollution levels remain a cause for concern in the capital city of what was until recently the world’s fastest-growing major economy.

New Delhi’s air quality index, or AQI, improved to ‘poor’ on Monday from ‘severe’ last week. A reading above 400 is classified as severe and “affects healthy people and seriously impacts those with existing diseases,“ according to the Environment Ministry.

“It affects us all,” Frank Hans Dannenberg Castellanos, the ambassador of the Dominican Republic to India and the dean of the Diplomatic Corps, was cited as saying by the Press Trust of India. “This is a problem of major proportions to be solved” by the city and the federal government.

Business Standard

Delhi's air quality dips to 'severe' levels, likely to worsen on Wednesday

The air quality monitor predicted the pollution levels in Delhi-NCR are expected to enter the "severe-plus" or "emergency" category today.

After slight relief, Delhi and its suburbs have again been engulfed in thick blanket of smog as fall in the temperature and wind speed pushed the city's air quality in the "severe" zone.

Delhi's overall air quality index (AQI) fell to 467 at 6:30 am from 425 on Tuesday evening, according to System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR).

The PM 2.5 stood at 317 while the PM10 was recorded at 451.

The air quality monitor also predicted the pollution levels in Delhi-NCR are expected to enter the "severe plus" or "emergency" category today.

Meteorologists said the national capital recorded on Tuesday morning a minimum temperature of 11.7 degrees Celsius, the season's lowest so far. It is two notches below normal for this time of the year.

Most of the 37 air quality monitoring stations across Delhi recorded air quality in the severe category on Tuesday.

Faridabad (413), Gurgaon (511), Ghaziabad (461), and Noida (572) also choked on extremely polluted air.

An AQI between 201 and 300 is considered 'poor', 301-400 'very poor' and 401-500 'severe'. An AQI above 500 falls in the 'severe plus' category.

According to SAFAR, the share of stubble-burning accounted for 25 per cent of Delhi's pollution on Tuesday, up from 18 per cent on Monday.

Business Standard

Tourists turn their back on Delhi as air pollution reaches record levels

Rising pollution levels is an added problem for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is trying to reverse an economic slowdown as he seeks to lure investors to the South Asia nation.

Business travelers and tourists are avoiding New Delhi, as air pollution in India’s capital reached record levels, travel agents said.

Booking inquiries for hotels and flights to New Delhi have slumped since the festival of Diwali on Oct. 27, said Sharat Dhall, chief operating officer of the business-to-consumer segment at Yatra Online Inc. Bursting of firecrackers as part of the festivities worsened pollution caused by farm stubble burning in areas around the capital city.

Business travelers are looking to reschedule their visits to a later date, Dhall said in an email, adding that tourists are preferring Himalayan hill stations and destinations in the state of Rajasthan, home to the Thar desert, over New Delhi, famous for the 12th-century Qutab Minar and the Red Fort, built in the 17th century.

Pollution levels in New Delhi surged to more than three times of what’s considered hazardous over the weekend, increasing the risk of stroke, heart disease and lung cancer. While both provincial and federal governments have taken steps, including limiting private vehicles usage and shuttering factories, they have been unable to stop farmers from burning crop stubble -- smoke from which is the main reason for air becoming a lethal cocktail at this time of the year.

Bookings and travel searches for New Delhi from key international areas including Singapore, Thailand and Qatar have fallen 44 per cent, according to travel website Ixigo. On the other hand, bookings and queries from New Delhi to other destinations have increased 25 per cent, Ixigo said. Last-minute bookings from Delhi to other metros like Mumbai and Bangalore have also surged 20 per cent.

Rising pollution levels is an added problem for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is trying to reverse an economic slowdown as he seeks to lure investors to the South Asia nation. Almost 11 million foreign tourists arrived in India last year, government data showed, as Modi’s administration unveiled a campaign to showcase everything from the country’s mountains to deserts and rain forests to wildlife parks.

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Air pollution kills 1.2 mn Indians in a year, third biggest cause of death

The study titled 'State of Global Air 2019' reported that the life on average of a South Asian child growing up in current high levels of air pollution will be shortened by two years and six months.

Business Standard : Exposure to outdoor and indoor air pollution contributed to over 1.2 million deaths in India in 2017, a new global study said on Wednesday.

The study titled "State of Global Air 2019" reported that the life on average of a South Asian child growing up in current high levels of air pollution will be shortened by two years and six months, while the global life expectancy loss is 20 months.

At the same time, the study noted, India has initiated major steps to address pollution sources like the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, accelerated Bharat Stage VI clean vehicle standards and the new National Clean Air Programme.

"These and future initiatives have the potential, if fully implemented as part of a sustained commitment to air quality, to result in significant health benefits in coming years," Health Effects Institute Vice President Robert O'Keefe said in a statement to IANS.

The Health Effects Institute is an independent, non-profit research institute funded jointly by the US Environmental Protection Agency, industry, foundations and development banks.

Worldwide, air pollution is responsible for more deaths than many better-known risk factors such as malnutrition, alcohol use and physical inactivity, according to the annual report.

In India, air pollution is the third highest cause of death among all health risks, ranking just above smoking. Every year, more people globally die from air pollution related diseases than from road traffic injuries or malaria.

Overall, long-term exposure to outdoor and indoor air pollution contributed to nearly five million deaths from stroke, diabetes, heart attack, lung cancer and chronic lung disease in 2017.

Out of these, three million deaths are directly attributed to PM2.5, half of which are generated from India and China together.

South Asia -- Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan -- is the most polluted region, with over 1.5 million air-pollution related deaths.

The report found China and India together were responsible for over half of the total global attributable deaths, with each country facing over 1.2 million deaths from air pollution in 2017.

7 of top 10 most polluted cities in the world are in India; Gurgaon on top

The index measures the presence of fine particulate matter known as PM2.5, a pollutant that can fester deep in the lungs and bloodstream of human beings.

Seven of the top 10 most polluted cities in the world are in India, according to a new study showing South Asia’s battle with deteriorating air quality and the economic toll it’s expected to take worldwide.

Gurugram, located southwest of India’s capital New Delhi, led all cities in pollution levels in 2018, even as its score improved from the previous year, according to data released by IQAir AirVisual and Greenpeace. Three other Indian cities joined Faisalabad, Pakistan, in the top five.

The index measures the presence of fine particulate matter known as PM2.5, a pollutant that can fester deep in the lungs and bloodstream of human beings.

“This has enormous impacts, on our health and on our wallets,” Yeb Sano, executive director of Greenpeace Southeast Asia, said in a statement released with the figures. “In addition to human lives lost, there’s an estimated cost of $225 billion in lost labor, and trillions in medical costs.”

India, the world’s fastest-growing major economy, makes up 22 of the top 30 most polluted cities, with five in China, two in Pakistan and one in Bangladesh. India racks up health-care costs and productivity losses from pollution of as much as 8.5 percent of gross domestic product, according to the World Bank.

China made marked progress in its usually dismal pollution levels, with average concentrations falling by 12 percent in 2018 from the previous year, according to the data. That should help the message President Xi Jinping will share with political party leaders on progress across three so-called “critical battles” during the National People’s Congress meetings that start this week.

Sano traced much of the problematic readings back to climate change. He noted that burning fossil fuels is both the key driver of climate change and of air pollution worldwide, and that shifting atmospheric conditions have worsened air quality and amplified forest fires.

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Indians lose 4 yrs of their lives to air pollution, effect worse than AIDS

According to the new Air Quality Life Index (AQLI), particulate air pollution cuts global average life expectancy by 1.8 years per person.

Business Standard : People in India would live an average 4.3 years longer if the country met the global guidelines for particulate pollution, according to a study which found that effect of pollution on life expectancy is worse than HIV/AIDS, cigarette smoking, and even terrorism.

According to the new Air Quality Life Index (AQLI), developed by researchers at University of Chicago in the US, particulate air pollution cuts global average life expectancy by 1.8 years per person.

The AQLI establishes particulate pollution as the single greatest threat to human health globally, with its effect on life expectancy exceeding that of devastating communicable diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, behavioural killers like cigarette smoking, and even war.

Critically, the AQLI reports these results in tangible terms that are relatable for most people.

"Around the world today, people are breathing air that represents a serious risk to their health. But the way this risk is communicated is very often opaque and confusing, translating air pollution concentrations into colors, like red, brown, orange and green," said Michael Greenstone, a professor at Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC).

"My colleagues and I developed the AQLI, where the 'L' stands for 'life,' to address these shortcomings. It takes particulate air pollution concentrations and converts them into perhaps the most important metric that exists: life expectancy," he said.

The AQLI is based on a pair of studies that quantify the causal relationship between long-term human exposure to particulate pollution and life expectancy.

Seventy-five percent of the global population, or 5.5 billion people, live in areas where particulate pollution exceeds the WHO guideline.

The AQLI reveals that India and China, which make up 36 per cent of the world's population, account for 73 per cent of all years of life lost due to particulate pollution.

On average, people in India would live 4.3 years longer if the country met the WHO guideline -- expanding the average life expectancy at birth there from 69 to 73 years.

In the US, about a third of the population lives in areas not in compliance with the WHO guideline. Those living in the country's most polluted counties could expect to live up to one year longer if pollution met the WHO guideline.

Globally, the AQLI reveals that particulate pollution reduces average life expectancy by 1.8 years, making it the greatest global threat to human health.

By comparison, first-hand cigarette smoke leads to a reduction in global average life expectancy of about 1.6 years. Other risks to human health have even smaller effects: Alcohol and drugs reduce life expectancy by 11 months; unsafe water and sanitation take off 7 months; and HIV/AIDS, 4 months... Read More

87% Indians would buy electric vehicles if that reduced pollution: survey

Transportation accounts for about 11 per cent of India's carbon emissions and is a major source of air pollution in several cities nationwide.

About 87 per cent of Indian drivers and vehicle owners would buy an electric vehicle (EV), if that helped reduce air pollution, according to a new survey.

Only 12 per cent would switch to EVs to avoid using petrol and diesel, according to the survey commissioned by Climate Trends, a Bengaluru-based nonprofit, which polled more than 2,000 Indian drivers, owners and those who planned to buy a car. In 2017, India sold about 900,000 EVs, 4 per cent of the volume of diesel and petrol vehicles sold.

Transportation accounts for about 11 per cent of India’s carbon emissions and is a major source for air pollution in several cities nationwide. As many as 14 of the world’s top 20 most-polluted cities are in India, according to a 2018 World Health Organization (WHO) report.

The findings of the Climate Trends survey were launched on September 6, 2018, a day before the start of a two-day long conference organised by NITI Aayog, the central government’s think-tank. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was expected to launch a policy on ‘Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric vehicles’ (FAME-II), much-anticipated policy for the Indian EV industry. The first phase, FAME-I, was released in 2015.

The launch, however, was postponed to rework the policy after the prime minister “indicated” a major change in the thrust of the policy, the Times Of India reported on September 7, 2018. The policy will focus on reducing the price of batteries in vehicles, deviating from its earlier focus on reducing the price of the entire vehicle by providing subsidies, said the report.

EV manufacturers and sellers were waiting for a single policy that laid out a roadmap for creating an EV ecosystem, including charging stations and manufacturing and buying incentives, IndiaSpend reported on March 5, 2018.

Most drivers, vehicle owners affected by poor air quality

About 76 per cent of drivers and owners surveyed said that they, their friends, family and neighbours, were suffering the effects of poor air quality, according to the survey.

The highest number of respondents who said they suffered from air pollution were from Delhi. About 91 per cent of those surveyed said that either their health or that of someone in the family or neighbourhood was affected by air pollution, said the survey...Read More

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